Did star lawyer botch suitcase murder case?

NEW BRUNSWICK – Melanie McGuire — the former Woodbridge resident convicted of killing her husband, dismembering his body, packing it in suitcases and tossing it off a bridge in Virginia — says her former high-profile attorney could have done a better job during her 2007 trial.

McGuire, 41, who is serving a life sentence for the April 28, 2004, murder of William McGuire, is arguing that she was denied effective representation by famed attorney Joseph Tacopina, who may have been high on prescription drugs and too busy having extramarital trysts at a New Brunswick hotel, a lawsuit claims.

McGuire’s new attorney said her client doesn’t seem to be the only one disenfranchised by Tacopina, the slick camera-ready attorney who has represented New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez during his steroids scandal, Michael Jackson in his child molestation case and Natalee Halloway murder suspect Joran van der Sloot.

Tacopina is facing a federal racketeering lawsuit filed by a former client, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was convicted of tax fraud.

Assistant deputy public defender Lois DeJulio said allegations made by Kerik, particularly that Tacopina was addicted to prescription painkillers, could have some bearing on McGuire’s effort to toss out her conviction.

“The allegation is just that. There is no factual support in the complaint itself,” said DeJulio, whose investigator has reached out to Kerik’s attorney to see whether he has a witness who can support the allegation.

She said it’s possible that the allegations do not coincide with the time in which Tacopina was representing McGuire.

“If that’s the case, then that’s the end of the matter,” DeJulio said. “But if it did coincide with the time frame it might very well supply reasons for decisions that were made that were not tactical decisions.”

In an email to the Home News Tribune, Tacopina said McGuire has the right to pursue any claim she deems appropriate.

“But the investigation of that claim will show that it is an outrageous falsehood,” he said. “Not to mention every minute of that trial was on TV and my condition is obvious.”

McGuire’s petition also suggests that Tacopina may have avoided hiring crucial expert witnesses in order to keep more of the $180,000 retainer she paid to his firm.

DeJulio on Thursday asked state Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz for additional time to see if the allegations brought by Kerik would affect McGuire’s petition for post-conviction relief.

Deputy Attorney General Daniel Bornstein said he had no objections to DeJulio’s request for additional time. An Aug. 18 telephone conference between the judge, DeJulio and Deputy Attorney General Daniel Bornstein is planned before oral arguments begin Sept. 2.

McGuire, who is incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Hunterdon County, did not attend Thursday’s brief court session. William McGuire’s sister, Cindy Ligosh, attended but declined to comment.

Kerik was convicted of tax fraud in 2009. In his lawsuit, Kerik accuses Tacopina of malpractice and engaging in a pattern of racketeering since 2006.

Kerik’s suit mentions the Tacopina firm, based in New York City, was retained to represent Melanie McGuire in the New Jersey criminal case known as the “suitcase murder.” The case received a lot of media attention and Tacopina used the case as an opportunity to boost his legal career, the suit states.

Kerik’s suit also alleges that while Tacopina was representing McGuire he began to engage in an extramarital affair with a producer from a major national television network who was married to a man who was an acquaintance of Tacopina’s.

“The two began their illicit liaisons at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey,” the suit states.

The suit also states Tacopina tried to take advantage of his relationship with the producer and her news organization to inflate his and his firm’s accomplishments.

“Tacopina’s target objective was to try to cause Individual A (the television producer) to compromise her journalistic integrity in an attempt to insulate Tacopina from derogatory coverage of his poor performance in the failed defense of Melanie McGuire, and the large scale dissemination of deceptively positive press coverage. Tacopina also attempted to leverage his relationship with Individual A to gain employment with the network as an ‘independent’ legal analyst,” Kerik’s suit states.

Melanie McGuire, a fertility nurse, married William McGuire in 1999. At the time, she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. Her husband was a computer technician for a college while his wife worked at a Morristown fertility clinic. At her job she met a doctor with whom she had an affair even though both were married. Authorities have said the two planned to spend their life together.

At the same time William McGuire had purchased a suburban dream home for the couple in Warren County. The day after they closed on the house they reportedly went back to their Woodbridge apartment, which was the last time William McGuire was seen alive.

His remains were found in suitcases that washed up along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia in May 2004. His legs were in one suitcase, his torso in another and his head in a third. Police found gunshot wounds to his head and torso.

A police investigation determined Melanie McGuire went to Pennsylvania two days before the murder and purchased a gun and bullets of the same size that killed William McGuire. She was arrested 18 months after the murder.

She was convicted in April 2007, sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least 63 ½ years.

The state Supreme Court in 2011 denied her request for an appeal of her conviction. A petition for post-conviction relief was filed last year. The 40-page petition indicates McGuire feels her rights to effective counsel were denied.

In particular, she feels her trial attorneys failed to consult and retain appropriate expert witnesses. She claims experts were not consulted to:

• Determine if the gun she purchased matched the bullets recovered from her husband’s body;

• Present an alternative explanation for the presence of chloral hydrate in her husband’s car;

• Refute the state’s claim that she could rid her apartment of all bloodstains.

Trial attorneys failed to authorize their computer expert to review the entire Internet history of the computer in her home and the retainer agreement created a conflict of interest because hiring additional experts would have cut into the attorney fees.

In addition, she claims trial attorneys failed to call witnesses and present evidence critical to her defense, such as Dawn Zhu, a resident in a neighboring apartment was not called to testify about an early morning argument she heard from the McGuire’s apartment. Ronald Chwala, the apartment complex maintenance supervisor, was not called to testify about the lease requirement that all walls be returned to white.

Witnesses were not presented from Reproductive Medical Associates to testify about the patient information computer database being accessed remotely and no evidence was presented about William McGuire’s training in pharmacology, according to the petition.